Tram 44

It’s 3:43 on Thursday morning. I can’t sleep even though I’m quite tired. I didn’t think the jet lag would affect me in this way, but hopefully I’m able to get on a sleep schedule soon! I decided to use this time to put some thoughts and happenings to words.

I’ll begin my journey to Belgium back when I first ordered my plane ticket. It was a few months before I was expected to leave and I was set to fly out January 10 to Atlanta then arrive in Belgium on the 11. The day before I leave Belgium I check my flight status to find that my flight has been cancelled due to snow in Atlanta! It was quite frightening at first. However, I was able to switch to another flight that although it had more transfers, would still get me to Belgium in time for orientation on the 12.

My parents and I arrive at the airport to find that my flight, once again, has been cancelled! This time, the cause is a cracked windshield on the plane. So I’m placed on another flight that will leave a few hours later. The flight was then, delayed about a half hour, which, at the time, didn’t seem as though it would be a big deal.

Upon arriving at the Chicago airport, my next hour and a half or so went sometime like this…

Shuttle from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2

Walked all the way down Terminal 2 (which is very long, I might add) to find out my flight was not in Terminal 2

I have to exit security in order to go by tram to Terminal 5

15 min until take-off and I arrive at my airline’s desk to be told that I must be there an hour before in order to get a boarding pass

I freak out because I have missed my flight to Europe

Back to Terminal 2 to speak with Delta about my missed flight

Back to Terminal 5 because I was supposed to pick up baggage from my first flight

Someone sends me to my original Terminal, number 1, because that is where my baggage should be; no such luck

Terminal 2 tells me I must hurry to Terminal 5 to get my luggage and they also give me a boarding pass for another plane set to leave in a few hours

Terminal 5 to the airline who should have my luggage and is close

Stay in Terminal 5 to sign into my airline with no luggage to check

I find it ironic that I flew with Delta originally but was never actually flying with Delta because of all my flight changes.  It seems as though most people have one horrible flight experience when they fly and so since I had mine on the way there I’m hoping for perfect travels on the way home. High expectations? I hope not.

I boarded this plane on time and arrived in Zurich where I was thankfully able to quickly find my gate and boarded my final plane on time, too. When I arrived at my final destination of Brussels, Belgium, I retrieved all of my bags of luggage, which was amazing! It’s still not unpacked even though I’ve been here for a day and a half.

As the plane leaving rose above the line of clouds you could still see the mountains, which was quite a sight. Mountains that are on top of clouds… pretty cool. When I was landing in Brussels, I couldn’t see the ground until just before we were on it because of all the clouds of rain. And yes, it does rain here quite a lot. In fact, it hasn’t stopped since I’ve been here. It hasn’t really been too much of a problem though. You just kind of have to deal with it.

My host mom was there to greet me after retrieving my luggage. She’s very nice and we were able to easily find things to talk about on our way home. I think I’ll enjoy living here this semester. When I arrived to my home, I met the other two guys that are living here, Ryan and Sam. They, too, are very nice and easy to talk to and anxious to travel, as am I so that will work out great! The house is much bigger than I imagined. It has three levels. The kitchen, living area type rooms bottom floor. Three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor and my floor is the entire third with a living roomish place connected to a bedroom and bathroom.

Ryan and Sam were going to go wander around Brussels and so I couldn’t turn that down. Our host mom dropped us off and we were off with little sense of direction! We took pictures of large, amazing buildings even though we weren’t sure what they were.  Our goal was to make it to the plaza and we somehow did! We turned a corner (after much walking) and boom! We were there. We then grabbed our first Belgium beers (mine was a fruit beer because I’m not a huge fan of beer, and it was quite tasty… for beer.) and enjoyed a couple hours of conversation.

We needed to catch a tram home and so found a station and hopped on what we hoped was the right one! Thanks to the guys, it was. We rode that for a bit and got off to make a transfer to tram 44, which would take us a block or so from home. The number of that tram is important because I feel like we will have many stories to tell about that tram. This first ride, we were halfway home and it started breaking very abruptly. We looked at each other, uncertain of what was happening. The tram stopped at the driver attempted to fix it. We were off again only to have the same harsh breaking thing happen again. He tried to fix it a couple more times with the same outcome and then, without a word the entire time, simply motioned for everyone to get off the tram. With one arm movement, everyone seemed to understand what he meant and so we followed the crowd off of tram 44 to a stop in hopes that another one would come soon.

We waited for a while and then a guy came over to us and told one guy sometime and everyone, once again, seemed to understand what they were supposed to do. So we followed, once again. We got on a bus that took us close to home and were home at about 11:30, which was a little later than I had hoped. I talked with our host mom for a bit but then quickly headed to bed as I had had very little sleep. I fell asleep quickly.

Wednesday morning we started orientation at our new college, Vesalius. We had yummy pastry things when we arrived and then listened to the expected boring orientation stuff. I’m glad I have two roommates who I’m able to do things with. Orientation would have much different had I gone alone, I’m sure.  We got a tour of the campus. It’s quite small. One thing that’s amusing is that instead of names for their buildings on campus, they have letters. Easier, I’m sure, for Americans to find their building, though. Also, there are about 3 bars on campus, which I found interesting. We met some people throughout the day and ended up getting some drinks with them afterwards. It was fun and I was glad to make new friends! I had fruity beers again but I also decided to try a real beer as well. I still don’t like beer. One thing we’ve found interesting about the beer is that each beer has it’s own glass with the name of the beer written on it.

We started to head home around 9:30 I believe, but it seemed much later since it was such a full day. We caught trams again and ended up on our lovely tram 44 again hoping it didn’t break down this time. We were again, about halfway home, and were pulling away from a stop when there was a pounding on the tram door. One lady stands up and begins angrily screaming at the tram driver, in French of course. This made the tram driver angry and so he stopped the tram in order to yell at her even better, I suppose. I imagine it went something like, “You need to stop the tram! Why weren’t you listening? The man wanted to get on but you just drove away! You need to listen better!” “This is my tram!!!! I did not hear him and it was too late. He missed it. It’s not my fault.” Etc. You can make up the rest of it, but that’s the gist that I picked up from my minimal French knowledge and my exceptional nonverbal knowledge (haha. Or perhaps it’s more of my exceptional imagination?). So we’re anticipating some other drama/entertainment from our next ride on tram 44.

I’ve done little unpacking, but tomorrow brings a full day, once again. An hour has passed now. I’m going to try and sleep again. I suppose this is quite a lengthy first entry. However, I guess this blog is mostly for me. I want to be able to have good documentation of my travels abroad this semester. Perhaps it’s too much detail for you, and that’s fine. But I do hope my family and friends will enjoy the occasional update with a story or two from my latest entry.  I bid thee fair-well for tonight!

My view leaving Zurich

The Triumphal Arch

They match! Even their hats are the same

Parliament

The Grand Place

Our first beers

Our first tram ticket, which we used improperly for a while